Enhancing Amtrak Cascades
Transport Action Canada and Transport Action B.C. were recently invited to participate in consultation meetings and comment on the new Amtrak Cascades Service Development Plan (SDP) by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which has been driving...
Work underway on Vancouver’s Broadway subway extension
Visitors to Vancouver taking the Canada Line downtown, stopping at Broadway City Hall station will see the construction that marks the recent start of Canada’s newest public transit expansion (complete with its own website): a $2.83 Billion extension of the city’s...
Reconnecting the West Coast, Plains and Prairies
On April 21, 2022, representatives of Transport Action Canada, including current Transport Action BC president Alex Mandel, met with fellow passenger rail advocates from across the border, All Aboard Northwest, the Rail Passengers Association, and the Big Sky...
TABC seeks equal consideration for transit riders as drivers get handouts from the Province
Around the world, from Germany to New Zealand, governments have been tackling the cost of living crisis in the aftermath of the pandemic and spiking gasoline prices due to the the invasion of Ukraine by cutting bus and train fares, directly reducing the cost of...
Integrated Transit Service for BC Sunshine Coast Communities
New partnership between BC Transit, Coast Connector Bus Company, and BC Ferries aims to bring integrated public transit service to remote Sunshine Coast communities with coordinated schedules and fares, which could become a model for more collaboration between...
Intercity Passenger Transportation in B.C. (Letter to NDP Environment Minister Heyman)
The following letter was sent to B.C.’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy in 2019. It was sent as a personal communication but the points, I believe, are supportable by TABC. The Minister’s Constituency Office reply follows the letter. Since this...
BC Government looks to next phase of SkyTrain link from Vancouver to North Shore
September 9, 2020 saw the release of the long awaited Stage 2 of the Burrard Inlet Rapid Transit Study. The project, started in 2018 and funded by the BC Ministry of Transportation, looks to address a subject of long standing interest among Lower Mainland transit...
COVID19 Affects Transit Financing – Service Cutbacks
Drastic ridership and financial losses - for TransLink farebox, gas tax and parking tax revenue - are leading to significant public transit service reductions. TransLink has announced major service cuts, including route eliminations, starting April 24 with much larger...
COVID 19 Impacts BC’s Public Transportation
The following was gathered from various web sites on April 3. Given the fluidity of the current situation, further changes may happen quickly and with little notice.BC Bus North (https://bcbus.ca/): The company has introduced additional cleaning protocols but its web...
Portland-Seattle-Vancouver High Speed Rail “Makes Economic Sense”
Transport Action BC agrees that high speed rail (HSR) linking Vancouver, Seattle and Portland is a great idea, but there are a lot of questions and complexities surrounding this proposal yet to be answered.
Canada Line and Snow (Feb. 2017)
TransLink’s Canada Line experienced two major shutdowns (Feb 3 / 6, 2017). The cause was the apparent inability of trains to travel northbound between Bridgeport and Marine Drive Stations. These incidents are a reminder of a similar incident in November 2010 when an...
TransLink Chairman Year-end Interview
Global News BC had a 15 minute, year-end interview with TransLink Chairman Kevin Desmond on 19 Dec 2017. Issues discussed included possible later SkyTrain service on Friday and Saturday nights, safety, new Canada Line stations, Canada Line capacity expansions, double...
South Okanagan Transit Ridership Up
Transit ridership is up a reported 41% on certain routes in the South Okanagan. Good news but the numbers would be starting from a fairly low level. Unfortunately, there is no source for the numbers published and there is one oddity; a 30% decline in operating costs...
Contracting Transit Operations
The Eno Center for Transportation in Washington DC published a report touting the benefits of contracting out as a way to improve transit service. "A Bid for Better Transit: Improving Transit Service with Contracted Operations" looks at a number of examples of...
In Memoriam (Amtrak Cascades Train 501 Crash)
Transport Action BC wishes to express condolences for the deaths of Jim Hamre and Zack Wilhoite, as well as the other victim and the many people injured in the December 18, 2017 Amtrak Cascades Train 501 crash. TABC was shocked to hear the news about the derailment on...